ROSIN COVEN

EDWARDIAN HOUSE BAND & FOUNDERS OF THE EDWARDIAN BALL

Rosin Coven, your Edwardian Ball Hosts, dreamt up this spectacle long ago in a dust-covered martini bar in the middle of a dust-filled desert. They proudly continue the tradition of bringing an Edward Gorey story to life each year in partnership with their friends The Vau de Vire Society. Eight musicians blend violin, cello, contrabass, guitar, vibraphone, trombone, trumpet, drums & lush vocal harmonies in a strangely beautiful mix of classical, jazz, chamber, tango, klezmer, sultry lounge, theatrical cabaret, and cinematic dreams. Also known as the “World’s Premiere Pagan Lounge Ensemble,” they continue to surprise even themselves.

VAU DE VIRE SOCIETY

CO-HOSTS OF THE BALL
Spawned from the depths of San Francisco’s thriving Dance and Circus sub-cultures, the Vau de Vire Society has ravaged and titillated the live entertainment scene causing jaws to drop in awe and admiration around the Bay Area and beyond. This Avant-Cabaret community consists of classically-trained dancers, some of the nations most acclaimed acrobats, aerial artists, contortionists and circus side-show acts, an array of unique fire-performers, a handful of thespians and a barrage of the most enticing go-go’s. The group has been cross-pollinating genres by collaborating with an eclectic variety of world-renowned musicians and Dj’s in creating original stage shows and festival productions for the non- pretentious. Most notable collaborators include Cirque du Soleil, San Francisco Symphony, Peaches, the Alkaline Trio, The Dresden Dolls, Fishbone, Rosin Coven, Crystal Method and many other widely respected artists.

JILL TRACY “Belle of the Ball”

Hailed by LA Weekly as “the cult darling of the Underworld,” “Belle of the Ball Jill Tracy has been proclaimed by National Public Radio as “a Bay Area treasure…like Grafeo coffee, Scharffen Berger chocolates, and fine Napa Cabernets.” The San Francisco-based singer/ pianist /storyteller and “musical conjurer” has garnered multiple awards and a passionate following for her eerie and beautiful cinematic music, sophisticated lyrics, old-world glamour, and curious passion for strange tales.

Her recent spontaneous “channeling” of music in peculiar locales have featured haunted castles, decrepit gardens, abandoned asylums, and murderous mansions. Punk legend Jello Biafra proclaims “Drop dead original and dark as a drowning pool…I sometimes wonder if Jill Tracy is actually a ghost.”

Jill Tracy’s Parlour of Spirits — For the very first time, “Belle of the Ball” Jill Tracy performs a full length concert and Musical Seance upstairs in The Museum of Wonders — within the lavish red-velvet walls of the historical 1909 Masonic Lodge. The Freemasons held their secret ceremonies and rituals in this very room, now it’s our turn to conjure some magic.

She will be joined by percussionist Randy Odell, bassist Kenny Annis, and theremin player Meredith Yayanos (The Parlour Trick.)

DARK GARDEN CORSETRY

Dark Garden’s crew of dedicated corset makers, helmed by Autumn Adamme, has been making the world a curvier place to be since 1989, offering a safe space for people of all shapes and sizes to be fabulous. Their corsets, costumes and gowns are world renowned for exceptional quality and fit, not to mention beauty.

MIZ MARGO

Miz Margo originally began her DJing career in the early part of the 20th century spinning 78s in the cooch tent of a traveling carnival. Tired of the carny life, she went underground until she co-founded San Francisco’s Dark Sparkle in 1999. She is a collector of oddities, eccentric fashions, and obscure music. Still cranking the phonograph to this day, Miz Margo breathes undeath into the bodies on the dance floor wherever she goes.

DELACHAUX

The Chandu of Shake returns with a new spell. From antique tangos and ragtime risqué to whirlwind waltzes and wild abandon, Delachaux’s notorious banquet of ballroom beats have been lauded all along the West Coast and have distinguished him as the Edwardian Ball’s tenured curator of curious sounds.

SHAKTI BLISS

Shakti Bliss is a DJ, Performance Artist and Fashion Designer based out of Southern California twisting luscious old time swing and lounge tunes with bassy uptempo beats creating a genre of her own called “Dirty Electro Swing”.

Her quirky romantic 1920’s vintage mash-ups with unavoidable banging bass music, fidget house and electro keeps the dance floor swinging with a modern Vaudeville flair.

Dressed to the nines, Shakti Bliss fuses her unique handmade fashions and speakeasy antics behind the decks while exuding her addictive pleasure for flapper swing culture with a fun loving, sexy edge.

THE FERTILE VOID

The Fertile Void is a collaboration between Carrie Katz, founder, singer, and composer for Rosin Coven, Squid, Inc., a string quartet made up of some of the Bay Area’s fiercest string players, and Laura Inserra, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and teacher from Sicily. The net result is other-worldly music that trace the human experiences of longing, hope, betrayal, and passion- just to name a few!

FOU FOU HA!

Having been a part of the Edwardian Ball for the last decade, Fou Fou Ha! is an animated Tim Burton-esque dance troupe who bridge theatre improv, quirky dance numbers, and wild costuming in an “only in San Francisco” kind of way. They are a family of enticing performers, each owning a unique character that celebrates individuality and unabashed expression of the deepest absurdities in humanity.

SHOVELMAN

Shovelman is a junkyard beatnik, a shovel guitar wielding surrealist folk superhero. Armed with a collection of pawnshop effects pedals and an old barn-shovel turned slide-guitar, Shovelman plays ol’ fashioned folktronica-grooves looped straight out of the ground. The sounds of Mississippi deltablues from the electro-psychedelic future, collide with the antiquated rubble of lyrical one-man-band hoboetry. Shovelman has opened for Primus, Beats Antique and The Yard Dogs Roadshow performing on stages at festivals that include Lightning in a Bottle, Health and Harmony, Earthdance and The Oregon Country Fair. “Shovelman’s music would be playing on the radio if Tom Waits and Les Claypool ever went on a road trip together…… and were lost.” – Chip ‘So Wat TV’ Santa Cruz.

SUPERTALL PAUL

Paul Newman, aka SuperTallPaul, is a well proportioned enigma. His oddly intriguing appearance reflects a 6’6″ man with pigtails, a curly mustache, and outrageous clothing. He is a professional entertainer of the highest quality specializing in “one man band” style musical looping. He incorporates his soulful voice with ukelele, saxophone, flute, beatboxing, bass effects, & even the occasional nose whistle! Paul won the Boss National Looping competition and is renowned as one of the greatest musical loopers in the world. In addition to his incredible live music performance, he often incorporates many circus skills into his act including juggling, magic, face balancing, comedy, improv, & unicycle. For more than a decade Paul has shared his performance skills for large scale festivals around the world to include Coachella, Bonnaroo, Electric Picnic, Shambhala, and many others. Akin to artists like Reggie Watts and Beardyman, SuperTallPaul is a hybrid performer who combines theatrical, in the moment comedy and skill based artistry with funky, awe inspiring musical grooves. As a well versed street performer, Clown, and Improvisational Actor, he thrives on the spontaneous and even awkward moments that happen with an engaged audience. He creates a performance experience that has amazed and thrilled many diverse audiences around the globe.

Super Tall Paul is pleased to bring his Leisure Listening Lounge, a silent disco style lounge experience, to the Edwardian Ball. An experience that will blend modern day technology with turn of the century class and charm!

DIVA MARISA

MARISA LENHARDT has sung with the San Francisco Opera, the Oakland East Bay Symphony, Chris Brubeck, and multiple times in recital with Frederica von Stade. At Burning Man she is the voice of David Best’s Temples and the Thunderdome.

She performs regularly with Verismo Opera and with Velocity Circus Troupe, where she sings music of her own composition, often from a trapeze. She can be seen singing in Francis Ford Coppola’s recent film, Twixt.

THE GRAND ARTIQUE

“To provide people with the necessary tools is good; to inspire them to put those tools to use is great.” -Boss Whispers

We are a trading company first and a bastion of freedom second. One part General Store one part wild west saloon, The Grand Artique provides customers with the unique experience of a fair trade for goods and services in a participatory atmosphere full of gritty characters where those looking to buy are welcome, but those willing to barter are kings.

From their storefront in Pacific Beach, C.A. the Dolan Brothers have mixed their unusual antics with their love of the old, forgotten and rusty artifacts of America. And now they bring their show on the road, offering to festivals and small towns everywhere a taste of the west like only The Grand Artique can provide.

The Grand Artique makes it first appearance at The Edwardian Ball, with its traveling caravan the Trading Post of the unusual, a gallery of schematics antics and rad habits. This will be the one stop shop to swap, barter, or trade for everything you forgot that they remembered you would. From batteries to eye wear, skulls to pocket watches, or geared sprockets and lockets just bring your silver and gold to wheel and side-deal your way to say, ” I made a trade with the Boss.” With their Mayor, W.C. Thornbush and their complete cast of characters from the Floosies to the preacher. The Grand Artique has put all their weight behind this endeavor. Filling booth evenings with the non-stop interactive entertainment, hilarious sketches, aimed to entertain you till the wee hours of the morning.

MAJOR POWERS & THE LO-FI SYMPHONY

Nicholas Jarvis Powers, self-taught pianist and songwriter, has been rolling around in the gutters of the East Bay since he was a little kid. Kevin and Dylan Gautschi (guitar & drums, respectively) are French brothers and are the sons of Pamela Wood, bass player for Bay Area weirdo rock legends Leila & The Snakes. Major Powers & The Lo-Fi Symphony is their band. They play Adventure Rock™.

UNWOMAN

Unwoman is a San Francisco-based solo cellist-singer-songwriter. Her live sets feature stand-up electric cello and the lush textures of live looping. With timeless songs about love gone wrong and classic covers, Unwoman has been a favorite solo act at major steampunk, goth, and sci-fi-related events all over North America. She received the 2013 Steampunk Chronicle Reader’s Choice Award for best solo musician. Unwoman has also performed with Amanda Palmer, Voltaire, Abney Park, Rasputina, and Vernian Process, among many others. She has released eight albums.

EMCEE VEGAS E. TRIP

Hailing from the Mighty plains of KonTiki and Chinotchka, an avid Ventriloquist to the needy, a pilot of the unnerving, Greedy with sheep-like abandon. A rebirth of ancient astronauts and Dean Martin’s drinking hand. Daring to dare the undare-able after being dared.

Singer, Actor, Comic, Patriarch to the Forgetful. Skullduggery never smelled so good.

JOHN BROS. PIANO COMPANY

In early 2010, John Morgan and John Thatcher Boomer were a few months out of college, that is, they were without any real job prospects. They spent their days burning through their record collection ranging from Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev to Eric Dolphy, Thelonious Monk, and Wayne Shorter, but also developing and honing their own compositions. On St. Patrick’s Day of that year, they had enough material for a street show and hauled their Wurlitzer spinet to the closest subway station. A few months later they had a cover story in the art section of the San Francisco Chronicle and were playing shows across California: the Belasco theatre in Los Angeles, the Warfield and Regency Ballroom in SF, several vineyards in Napa Valley, and the 2011 MJF. By this time, the duo, which had been an act of alternating pianists now featured Boomer almost exclusively on clarinet.

In late 2011, Arlo Perlstein and Jimi Marks, longtime friends of and frequent collaborators with the JBPC, joined the band full time as their trumpet player and drummer, respectively. Together, the four of them played an after-hours speakeasy from 2-6AM every Friday night for a year. Soon after, taking time away from his solo career (The Gris Gris, Greg Ashley Band) and work in his own recording studio, Greg Ashley picked up the much-needed bass for the JBPC and the quintet was formed. Anchored in Morgan’s stride piano and early New Orleans jazz leanings as well as Ashley’s un-busy bass playing, their original music is often drawn towards klezmer and gypsy music by Boomer while Marks and Perlstein, who had previously formed an Afro-Cuban ensemble (Los Puros), also impart a Latin influence.

However, the definitive quality of this quintet does not lie in the genres they bend or blend, but in the fact that the performance has always been their rehearsal space. From the first sidewalk street shows to the weekly speakeasy, an audience has been present throughout the development of their sound. As the five musicians give direction to the group, the listener has also had his say. Thus, while the JBPC often explores and unfolds new musical possibilities within their compositions, the music never idles or devolves into the esoteric, for the constant audience demands their unrelenting energy and runs an electric current through everything they produce.

THE MYSTERIOUS MURDER OF VIVIEN BLACKWELL

It was 1937 in the Presidio. Fading film star Vivien Blackwell was found dead at her home, stabbed to death. Her husband, retired General Hamilton, was the prime suspect, and was missing. He was later found in the attic from apparent suicide by self-inflicted stab wounds. The weapon was never found. The house was rumored to be haunted by the spirit of Vivien, and the house sealed and never sold.

It is 70 years later, and Vivien’s primary film director and admirer, Allen Goldworthy, has died. An eccentric with a penchant for the dramatic, the director stipulated that a seance is to be held on the anniversary of the murder to discover new facts about the double death, and to learn the true fate of his lifelong muse.

Born out of a love for Halloween, the animated props by Gregory Harsh from the murder house have a story to tell. Listen and watch, and perhaps you will have a theory on what happened to the couple.

LE CANCAN BIJOU

Le Cancan Bijou is an award winning, specialty themed dance troupe. The talented dancers of Le Cancan Bijou bring a new excitement and playful spirit to the traditional, high-kicking French Cancan. Offering Classic French, Old West, and Modern styles, their exciting moves have been an addition to countless venues and events.

THE SPEAKEASY SYNDICATE

Curators of melodic swing, grandeur, harmonious fallacy and musical melancholia – take the sounds of the past and process them through the steamworks of electronical contraptions to propagate sweet gems for your ears and tapping feet! Bewitching and newfangled tunes will fill the air and mind to influence all gentlefolk to mix, mingle and sway!”

BESO NEGRO

Beso Negro has an all-star lineup of internationally experienced musicians who have brought drive and passion to Gypsy Swing. The love for tradition has collided with a modern sensibility and has transformed the genre into a vibrant new beast. Darker, faster, more danceable, more blues, moreGypsy, Beso Negro’s indelible fingerprint brings Jazz Manouche to a new generation and to the 21st century.

Kinetic Steam Works is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational arts organization working to preserve and promote steam powered heritage, artifacts, and technologies through the restoration of vintage steam engines. We teach the skills and knowledge needed for both steam engine restoration and operation, and we produce artistic performances that utilize steam engines and steam technologies. Steam power is all out in the open. Wood and water, the scrape of shovel, the thump of pistons. Steam power is beautiful, rhythmic, and evocative. It has an accessible organic look and feel, with a calming rhythm similar to a heartbeat. Earthy like an elephant, it can’t be missed.

Kinetic Steam Works is a group of fabricators, engineers, artists and steam enthusiasts curious about what came before the advent of petroleum power, electronics, and the automobile culture. We found machines, simple and intricate, that blurred the line between art and industry, kinetic masterpieces created during an era of diabolical innovation and gleeful invention. The steam engine embodied the ideologies, desires and dreams of its era, of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, a bright and shining future where technology was built by hand. They were the aspirational finned cars and rockets of their day. Most recently, steam has been represented by the romantic industrial arts and the literary movements of retro sci-fi, steampunk, and gothic neo-Victorianism. The arch modernity of the steam-driven Industrial Revolution is a powerful metaphor that explores our present and future through the nostalgic past.

Classically trained and fiercely visionary, Marlowe Bassett is a multi-faceted creator. Artistic director, performing artist, model and costume designer, Ms. Bassett conceives stunning presentations that communicate beauty, sensuality and courage. As a ballerina, contemporary dancer, and fire performer, Ms. Bassett has built massive performance recognition, dancing professionally for over a decade Internationally. Just as a fire dazzles, bending space and light, Ms. Bassett illuminates in movement. Length, technique, and graceful beauty spectacularly delight the eyes, and stir the heart. Elegance meets evolution in her masterfully designed performance costumes and one-of-a-kind couture. Marlowe Bassett’s vision is to inspire and uplift through fashion, movement and visual arts. www.marlowebassett.com

Jocelynn Rudig dances for the pure joy of performing. She has performed nationally and internationally for over 13 years as a professional dancer and aerialist. She will dazzle you high in the air on tissue, Lyra or Trapeze or down on the ground en pointe or with fire.

OWL TREE HEALINGS – Tarot & Tinctures

Owl Tree Healings offers spiritual guidance and insight into your life path by exploring your “root-system” through the ancient arts of Tarot and Therapeutic-Grade Essential Oils. Bonnie Duque, born into a family of intuits and healers, including a widely-respected Mexican-Indian Curandera (folk healer/shaman), has been a natural channel for psychic energy since childhood. Bonnie has been reading Tarot for 25 years and brings a depth of insight and personal wisdom to every session. Owl Tree Healings was featured at the 2011, 2012 and 2013 Edwardian Balls in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, 2010 Noise Pop Treasure Island Music Festival and maintains a private practice in San Francisco at EHS Pilates Studio.

Owl Tree Healings can be found in the Museum of Wonders both nights of the SF events, and in Los Angeles.

SQUID INC

Squid Inc is made up of some of the Bay Area’s fiercest string players and will open your ears as the world of popular music dances with classical tradition. Fun, fiery, and fully engaging, we play our original tunes and original, unusual arrangements with a unique style and flare all our own. Come check us out live and you’ll hear the line between performer and audience dissolve, where everyone feels they are welcomed in with open tentacles – completely encouraged to act, react, and interact. Welcome to the future of the string quartet!

MUSEUM OF WONDERS

The Museum of Wonders is a crackled compendium of human knowledge and natural history. Curated by ramshackle polymath Benjamin Burke, the museum displays the fruits of the labors fueled by human curiosity- scientific illustrations and paraphernalia, incongruous contraptions, tools and trinkets of forgotten trades, trophies of taxidermy, and skeletal remains of the animal kingdom. These wonders are culled from the collections of Mr. Burke, anatomical cartographer Casey Cripe, and local artists and purveyors of naturalistic treasures such as the Bone Room and Paxton’s Gate.

EMCEE KINGFISH of the HUBBA HUBBA REVUE

Kingfish (Jim Sweeney) is a veteran San Francisco showman, impresario and social drinker. He’s also the producer of San Francisco’s biggest, wildest, burlesque & variety show, “Hubba Hubba Revue,” winner of the SFWeekly’s 2009 award for “Best Burlesque Show.” An ardent supporter of social gatherings on the grandest scale, Kingfish is a lifelong Edwardian, and wishes everyone a splendid time at this year’s Ball.

THE GENTLEMEN CALLERS

THE GENTLEMEN CALLERS is the latest project from the production team of ATOM SMITH & BUCK DOWN of los angeles, california. the duo is most famous for their decade long stint as the writers, arrangers and producers of the 20 piece electro-funk circus THE MUTAYTOR (www.mutaytor.com). atom and buck have also performed or produced as THE DUB PSCIENCE LABORATORY and GORILLIONAIRE, along with their own records – they have produced a number of remixes for a wide range of artists, including JANIS JOPLIN, MATISYAHU, KID BEYOND, ROSIN COVEN and others. their music has been featured in TV and film, including NBC’s Hawaii, FOX’S House, Return of the Living Dead, Dirty Love and quite a few indie films about the Burning Man festival, where the MUTAYTOR first rose to fame.

THE GENTLEMEN CALLERS is all american electro swing house, with a decidedly west coast feel, and will be doing a great deal of remixes of dust bowl revivalist bands that all their friends seem to be in these days, their own original compositions, along with live DJ performances, coming to a swinging joint near you.

MALVOYE THE MENTALIST

A piece of American history from side shows and traveling carnivals, Malvoye the Mentalist is a fully automated antique fortune telling booth, that shares versions and visions of the future. Malvoye’s powers of mentalism are summoned to give you your own very unique and astonishingly accurate fortune. Malvoye knows all, Malvoye sees all.

DJ FACT.50

DJ FACT.50 has been providing atmospheric and thematic grooves to events all over the Bay Area for over a decade. Specializing in old world influenced styles, he promises to provide the Edwardian World’s Fair with a cavalcade of sounds and textures culled from and influenced by the late Victorian – early 20th Centuries.

CYCLECIDE

Heavy Pedal Cyclecide Bike Rodeo is a club of alter-bike mechanics, mariachi-punk musicians and cycle crazed clowns who love building bikes and creating custom works of interactive art. Together we form a traveling pedal-powered carnival that is fun for people of all ages. The Heavy Pedal Cyclecide Bike Rodeo has been independently operated and touring for over ten years now. We travel in a converted school bus full of clowns and their alter-cycles and pull a trailer loaded with pedal-powered rides. We’ve toured across the United States and down into Mexico and have been featured performers at festivals such as Coachella, Stage Coach, Bumbershoot, Tour De Fat, Burning Man and Maker Faire, to name a few. We remain passionately devoted to the idea of the bicycle as a piece of interactive kinetic sculpture that can make music, breathe fire, even save the world!

WILL CHASE ARTS

Will Chase Arts has been responsible for the most eye-popping, mind-blowing, and visually-stimulating curated art shows known to humankind … at least in the Bay Area, anyway. Whether it’s in a formal gallery, an art event, or a knock-down-drag-out party, the galleries we create draw on any of the 1,500 artists in our database. And we’re not talking about the crap you find in 49 Geary, either … these are the best in local emerging artists that by all rights you should be hanging on the walls of your home, office, or prison cell.

~ PERFORMERS OF EDWARDIAN PAST ~

KLOWN KORPS KOLLECTIVE

Emerging in third place from the aftermath of the infamous Circus Metropolus blimp catastrophe of 2010, the Klown Korps Kollective specializes in immersive, interactive capers, custom-fit tomfoolery, and quasi-profound, unsanctioned acts of anti-terrorism (including the klown-fi band Gooferman). Honored as the first-ever circus troupe to be DARPA- and FDA-certified as 100% Klown, the Klown Korps is responsible for postponing the inevitable demise of planet Earth through trickery associated with the Mayan calendar, and for the signature hair-dos often associated with Trojan Vibrations. The Klown Korps will be supporting Friday night’s Edwardian World’s Faire as Midway operators, and policing Saturday’s Edwardian Ball in the form of nefarious and highly respectable Keyfstoner Kops (with their mobile Sensation Station precinct headquarters).

F’RISQUE

F’risqué was forged in the midst of San Francisco’s thriving creative metropolis. This eclectic group of professional performers has been classically trained in various forms of dance, theater and circus. Each artist strives to maintain their individuality while also engaging in the collaborative process, allowing for an intricate fusion that has evolved into a unique style. Off stage, this dynamic group of artists are also fitness professionals ranging from personal trainers, to Pilates instructors, to dance teachers. Blending their vast experience and varied expertise, F’risqué has become an intersection for ideas and creative expression. F’risqué’s ultimate goal is to entertain and inspire through the medium of dance.

THE FOSSETTES

The Fossettes are the fusion of a succubus, an Amazon priestess, and a pair of red-headed sirens. They have come together to channel the inspiring work of those who have come and passed before them, in particular the vision of Bob Fosse, from whom the group lovingly derives its name. The four original members (Erin Kraemer, Julianna Seligman, Elizabeth Castaneda, and Melissa Castaneda) hail from the four corners of the cosmos and have been collaborating since 2005. They began performing as the Fossettes in May of 2009 and have been dancing the nights away ever since.

THE DISPLAYED LABORS SIDESHOW

The Displayed Labors Sideshow has been entertaining and horrifying legions of people for over the last five years. Combining old school sideshow with an insatiable blood lust, founding members Courtney Crimson and Chi-Kitty hit the bay area like napalm. These two have single handedly set fire to the minds of many with a take no prisoners approach to audience interaction. Displayed Labors is notorious for revealing never before rehearsed acts of danger live and on stage, including their signature performance, “William Tell”. Armed with fury and a questionable suitcase, DLS promises to leave scars, not only on their bodies, but in the minds of many. If you have seen them once, you can not get enough. If you have never seen them, you will never forget them. Ladies and gentlemen…. Step into the sideshow.